Aston Villa on Thursday won 2-0 at Feyenoord in the UEFA Europa League, but Nottingham Forest lost at home to Danish side Midtjylland as Rangers and Celtic also suffered defeats.
Emi Buendia curled in from just inside the penalty area and John McGinn swept in a second goal in Rotterdam as Villa made a winning return to the scene of their 1981-1982 European Cup triumph.
Villa failed to win any of their first six games of the season, but Unai Emery’s side have since reeled off three successive victories and are among seven teams on a maximum six points in the Europa League.
Photo: Reuters
Marco Bizot produced some key saves in the Villa goal after being thrust into the lineup as a late replacement for Emiliano Martinez, who reportedly injured his calf.
“It has been difficult in the beginning of the season, but we never lost the faith and hope,” Bizot told TNT Sports. “We still have the spirit, even when it was not that great at the beginning. Now, hopefully, we can keep this up.”
Forest paid the price for sloppy defending at set-pieces as Midtjylland won 3-2 at the City Ground to leave new head coach Ange Postecoglou still searching for his first win.
Defenders Ousmane Diao and Mads Bech scored either side of Dan Ndoye’s goal as Midtjylland punished Forest for failing to deal with a free-kick and a corner.
Valdemar Andreasen netted the decisive goal two minutes from time, before Chris Wood pulled one back for Forest from the penalty spot in stoppage-time.
“Really disappointing. Just really, really poor goals we conceded in the first half,” Postecoglou said. “Story of our last few games — key moments let us down.”
Forest are playing in Europe for the first time in 30 years and have just one point so far after a 2-2 draw away to Real Betis Balompie in their opening fixture.
Rangers’ miserable start to the season under beleaguered head coach Russell Martin continued as they lost 2-1 away to Austrian side SK Sturm Graz.
Tomi Horvat gave the hosts an early lead and Otar Kiteishvili doubled it as Rangers completely switched off and conceded from a free-kick.
Djeidi Gassama halved the deficit, but it was another dismal night for Rangers, who remain without a point in Europe.
“You can’t start that poorly,” Martin said. “The mentality is the problem.”
Their humiliating 9-1 aggregate thrashing in UEFA Champions League qualifying by Club Brugge was followed by a tame 1-0 home loss to KRC Genk in their Europa League opener.
Rangers are also struggling badly in Scotland where they are eighth in the 12-team Premiership.
“It’s an interesting time [to be Rangers head coach], it’s a frustrating time,” Martin added.
Celtic slumped to a 2-0 loss at home to SC Braga and are just a point better off than their Glasgow rivals.
The Scottish champions fell behind at Parkhead to a dipping long-range strike from Ricardo Horta that beat goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel far too easily.
Kelechi Iheanacho had an equalizer controversially ruled out early in the second half after a video assistant referee review for a supposed handball, but Celtic’s hopes of salvaging a result were dashed when substitute Gabri Martinez scored a scrappy late second goal for the Portuguese visitors.
Celtic have failed to score in five of their 12 games in all competitions this season, which included a pair of goalless draws against Kairat in the UEFA Champions League playoffs.
The Kazakh side won that tie on penalties to condemn Celtic to a place in the Europa League.
“Whatever it is, I need to find the solution to it,” Celtic head coach Brendan Rodgers said. “There’s been too many games now where we haven’t scored for a team that, last season, scored the most goals in the last 54 years in the club’s history. It’s my responsibility to find the solutions to that.”
Porto, Olympique Lyonnais and Lille OSC all won to maintain their perfect starts, while Basel, Real Betis and Fenerbahce bounced back from opening losses.
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